


Going to Mars

by LinksLipsSinkShips



Series: Folk, Hop, n Rhink [4]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Childhood, Childhood Friends, Gen, tw dead animal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 14:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11150052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinksLipsSinkShips/pseuds/LinksLipsSinkShips
Summary: Rhett may be the futurist of the pair, but Link is dead-set on one aspect of his own future.





	Going to Mars

**Author's Note:**

> Suggested Listening: Going to Mars by Judah and the Lion

At 8 years old, they were a tangle of already-too-long limbs running up the street. “Race you to the sign!” Rhett called, and Link pushed forward with everything he had in him. With Rhett’s long legs, he easily won at the beginning of summer, but by the end, Link had mastered the art of outpacing his taller friend, who may have had more stride, but wasn’t quite sure to do with all of his growth.

By 10 years old, they were a mess of laughter, riding their bikes around the town and looking for an adventure. “Hey, I bet you I could hit the middle of the O in that stop sign with a rock on the first try!” Rhett would challenge, and Link would tell him to go ahead and try. For the next hour, they’d be standing there throwing rocks until they finally hit it. When they did, though, it was the best feeling on the planet, and they’d collapse on the ground in relief, excitement, and pure giddiness.

In middle school, they ventured farther, past the field to two rocks. Today was different though. As they paced through the field, they saw it. One giant lump on the ground, something that had never been there before. As they approached, Link felt a tug in his throat. “Man… look at it.” Flies were already buzzing around the heap, and before long, it was easy to make out the shape as more than just a lump, but a dead cow.

“She must’ve died having her baby,” Rhett noticed, seeing the swollen, pregnant belly and hooves hanging out from the cow. “Looks like they both didn’t make it, man.” Neither of them knew what to say, so they just stood there. Rhett looked over to see Link, eyes closed, head bowed, hands clasped, lips moving. Rhett followed suit, silently praying for the dead cow. Life was so short, and you never knew what was going to take you, and it shook Rhett a little bit, the realization that anything could happen. Both boys opened their eyes at the same time and locked gazes with each other. They stood silently for another minute or two, until Rhett spoke quietly.

“Hey… do you think I could jump it?”

“Like, jump over the cow?”

“Yeah. Do you think I could make it over?”

“I don’t know. Let’s find out.”

They took turns leaping over the cow. There was this sense of desperation to actually making it over the cow. After all, who wanted to actually land on a dead cow? Yuck. For several minutes, they took turns running towards it and taking off over it like it was a hurdle to launch past, a game. Feeling the full force of their exertion start to sink in, they eventually grew tired of jumping over the cow and started towards the rocks they’d grown to love.

One night after they finished middle school, they laid out on a small island in the middle of the Cape Fear river, a small little patch of land. Enervated from swimming, they just stared at the stars.

“What do you think is going to happen to us in the next 5 years? The next 10 years?” Rhett pondered out loud. Always the futurist, Rhett never surprised Link when he made statements like that.

“I dunno, man. Hard to say.”

“Link, we’re goin’ into high school. We have lives ahead of us. Jobs, wives, kids, we’ve got all of that comin’ man, and you don’t know what’s gonna happen? Do you ever, like, think about it?”

“Yeah, I mean, sometimes. You never shut up about it, after all.”

“I’m just thinkin’ of you man. Our futures and all that. I want to make sure you’re prepared for it, you’re ready for it.”

“Rhett, I don’t even know what I’m gonna have for lunch tomorrow. Heck, I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday! How am I supposed to plan my whole future, to know what I want to do with the rest of my life?”

The boys were at a stalemate, a silent impasse, so they both turned their focus back to the stars.

“I think that one’s Mars,” Rhett said, pointing his finger to a dot in the sky.

“Yeah, could be,” Link responded. His thoughts were elsewhere. What did he want to do? Rhett had so much of this planned out, or at least knew he should be thinking about it… but Link didn’t have the slightest clue.

“Hey, man, about the future?” Link started his thoughts quietly.

“Yeah, Link?”

“I’m sorry that I don’t know what I really want to do next. But I do know something about my future.”

“What’s that, Neal?”

“That you’re gonna be in it, man. When we go to high school, you’re gonna be there. Maybe we’ll go to college together, you’ll be my best man at my wedding. You’re going to be there, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, man. I’ll be there.” Rhett’s voice was reassuring, his heart fluttering with the thought that Link was certain about the same thing he was. Wherever the future was taking them, it was taking them there together. Best friends… literally forever.

They fell quiet again for a long time. It was Rhett, though, who broke the silence this time.

“I’m sorry if I was pressuring you, Link. I mean, sometimes I’m afraid of the future, afraid that things won’t go like I plan they will, or that I’m not picking the right path or something. I didn’t mean to put that stuff on you. I just like to know that you’re thinking about it, too.”

Link sighed. His friend worried about the future too much, and he didn’t worry about it enough. While that helped give them both a little balance, Link knew it frustrated both of them.

“Rhett, I don’t think you have to know all of the specifics. You just have to do what’s right, especially what’s right for you, what feels right at the time.”

“Yeah, I guess so, Link. Just have to follow what’s right here,” Rhett perched himself up on his side, leaning his weight on his elbow, then placed a solid thump on the left side of Link’s chest.

“OW! What the hell, man?” Link shouted into the darkness, lunging forward to topple his best friend in the darkness. They fought, limbs flying, just a bit too gentle to be anything more than jest. They poked and prodded and tickled and tangled limbs until they were both breathing hard from the mock fight, falling onto their backs again in a huff.

“I was just tellin’ you that you have to follow your heart man, follow it into the future.”

“Yeah, I got that. Trust me, I got that.” Link chuckled over their mini brawl, clutching the initial point of impact where Rhett had walloped him. “Like I said, I’ll worry about the future when I get there. I’ll worry a lot less about it if I know you’ve pretty much already got it mapped out for the both of us.”

“Well, rest assured, Link, I have high hopes for the both of us. I dunno, maybe we’re going to Mars. Like… metaphorically. Unless the space program is freakin’ awesome by then.”

“Mars?”

“Mars. Like. Something way past what we can even think of right now.”

“Yeah. Mars. I’d go to Mars with you.”

They fell back into silence on the grassy island, the Cape Fear river coursing in the otherwise silent night. Shared past, shared present, shared future. That was enough for Link, and for right now, it was enough for Rhett, too.

**Author's Note:**

> The cow story actually comes from a real-life part of their shared history. It's in an Ear Biscuits episode, but unfortunately, I couldn't find exactly which one mentions it.


End file.
